June 2011

This blog was written by Nicole Spade. Nicole is an AmeriCorps Vista for Mobile Baykeeper in Mobile, AL. She recently attended the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Task Force meeting in Galveston, Texas.

On Monday, I attended another meeting of the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force (Task Force) in Galveston, Texas. President Obama, through an Executive Order, created the Task Force on October 5, 2010, in order to develop a strategy for long-term recovery of the Gulf Coast ecosystem following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster.

Help block the Dirty Water Act of 2011 (HR 2018)

The Clean Water Act (CWA) was created because States were not doing their job to protect our water resources. Thanks to the CWA 30+ years later water quality in the US has improved (we do not have rivers catching on fire) and this is something to celebrate.

Dean A. Wilson, Atchafalaya Basinkeeper was named by River Network as a 2011 Tom’s of Maine River Heroes Award winner at a ceremony during the annual National River Rally conference in North Charleston, South Carolina. The awards celebrate those who have dedicated their lives to protecting the nation’s water supply and their respective campaigns to do so.

After decades of complaints and multiple convictions, waste water system manager is sentenced to jail time and $850,000.00 in fines.

Several communities in North Louisiana have been denied their basic right of access to clean water for decades. Residents have voiced complaints about murky and contaminated tap water, raw sewage being discharged into open residential street side ditches, and improper termination and refusal of water and sewage services.

Well, summer is here and the water temps are heating up. Summer squalls are stirring the water bottoms. Wondering if we will begin to see the oil/dispersant mix, BP sunk to the water bottoms, begin to bubble up, move around below the surface and pop up again. We saw that happen over and over again last year. Hope not. Since our state and federal agencies are allowing BP to leave it all over the bottom rather then clean it up, guess we'll have to wait and see.

Hello all, my name is Jeff Gill. I was hired a week or two ago by Renee Blanchard as an intern to help get our oil companies to safeguard the environment from accidents. E. O. Wilson once spoke fondly of organizations such as Waterkeeper Alliance, which he collectively nicknamed the "Thin Green Line," who are willing to stand up for an environment which others have not yet fully seen its potential. If he spoke fondly of it, I will too!

Last week Charlotte Wells, Galveston Baykeeper, submitted a letter to the editor to the Houston Chronicle. Unfortunately, it didn't get printed, but that doesn't mean we aren't going to share it with you. See below.

Through funding from Gulf Coast Fund and our members, Emerald Coastkeeper has initiated a long-term oyster sampling project. Every six months we are collecting oysters inland of Perdido, Pensacola and Destin Passes in order to monitor whether these stationary species are accumulating the most harmful components of dispersed oil, PAHs, along with dispersant compounds.